Ceasefire Deal Between Hamas and Israel Now In Effect

Egypt's Foreign
Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr and U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton announcedthat a ceasefire deal has been
reached between Israel and Hamas. It went into effect at 9
p.m. local time (2 p.m. EST).

"Israel shall stop all hostilities in the Gaza Strip land sea and
air, including incursions and targeting of individuals.

"All Palestinian factions shall stop all hostilities from the
Gaza Strip against Israel, including rocket attacks and all
attacks along the border.

"Opening the crossings and facilitating the movement of people
and transfer of goods and refraining from restricting residents'
free movements and targeting residents in border areas.
Procedures of implementation shall be dealt with after 24 hours
from the start of the ceasefire.

"Egypt shall receive assurances from each party that the party
commits to what was agreed upon.

"Each party shall commit itself not to perform any acts that
would breach this understanding. In case of any observations,
Egypt as a sponsor of this understanding, shall be informed to
follow up."

Here's what Benjamin Netanyahu had to say:

PM Netanyahu: Israel can't sit idly by when the terror
organizations are rearming themselves - we will cooperate with
US on this issue

Earlier Palestinian sources
told Haaretz that a cease-fire would not be announced on
Wednesday because Israel refused to include the lifting of the
Gaza navl blockade as a term in the truce agreement. Israelwon't lift the
blockade, which was an
original demand of Hamas.

More than 160 Palestinians have died and more than 1200
have been wounded while five Israelis have died and dozens have
been wounded during the eight days of Israel's Operation Pillar
of Cloud.